The Watcher

Part 2

Two weeks earlier....

It was a warm autumn night and the air felt heavy with humidity. As the clock advanced towards midnight lightning flickered in the west and soon came the first distant growls of thunder. The rumbling became louder as the storm moved closer. The wind suddenly picked up and howled through the trees with rain drops blowing almost horizontally, but as the time passed midnight the wind and rain eased, and the thunder became more distant as the storm moved away. But the storm gods had a grandstand play in mind. Over the high area in the northern part of the city a negative static charge in the ground started to build, while a corresponding positive charge was intensifying in the cloud above. The charges continued to build rapidly until the air was crackling with electricity, and nature insisted that the charges equalise each other. Then in an instant an ionised channel opened between ground and cloud along which a bolt of white hot lightning pulsed for several seconds with a huge crash of rapidly displaced air followed by an ear shattering booming of thunder.

The girl, who had been sleeping peacefully in her bed up until that moment, jolted instantly awake and sat bolt upright. She almost screamed in shock. The flash of the lightning penetrated the closed curtains covering the window and seemed in imprint itself in her mind. As the rolling thunder gradually faded away she walked to the window and opened the curtains. The lightning had struck a large tree about a hundred metres away in a paddock on the opposite side of the road. She could see it smouldering and glowing. The glow looked unnatural, it was white and bright and pulsating. Fascinated she watched until she gasped in shock. A figure of a person appeared, a man, a black silhouette with the glow behind him, and she didn't know how, but she knew he was looking directly at her. She couldn't move for several seconds, it felt as if this person, this thing was coming in through the window and into her mind. She pulled the curtains closed and sat down on the bed taking deep breaths. A minute later she hesitantly opened the curtains a crack and peered out. The glow was gone, and so was the figure.

***

The lunch break bell had rung a few minutes earlier when there was a knock on the door of the science and mathematics teachers' staff room. Science teacher Donald Morgan opened the door and admitted the student.

"Thanks for coming during your lunch hour," he said, "Please take a seat." 

The girl sat down opposite Donald at his desk.. She was tall for sixteen, slim and pretty with long blonde wavy hair. She must have the boys chasing her with those looks, Donald thought. This girl was in her second last year of high school and was in his advanced science class. She usually had a confident look about her, but today she seemed nervous.

"Is there a problem, sir," she asked anxiously, "Have I done something wrong?"

"No, no, not at all," Donald hastily replied, "But I wanted to talk to you about your grades."

"But my grades have been high."

"Yes they have, you are in the top five percent, but I think you could be right at the top. I think you've been holding back."

"Sir?" the girl looked confused.

"I've looked at your records. Your teachers in the primary school were all highly impressed with your achievements, and in your first four years here at Duval High you came almost top at every subject, particularly maths and science. I know we are only three months into the year but your grades in my class, although they are very good, I'm sure could be even higher. I've been in the teaching game for long enough to recognise a gifted student." He leaned forward. "Is there some reason why you are not trying your best?"